Youth ✿ Paul Lahote [1]

ix. pack dinner

"You're ditching me."

Alex stood on her porch while she was talking to her twin brother on the phone. Jordan had called her suddenly and the girl immediately answered like usual. "Hey, you're the one that left me for a football scholarship."

Jordan sighed through the phone, not knowing entirely why he was getting so worked up about this. Alex and he hadn't been talking nearly as often as he would have liked, more so because she was always busy these days. Today they had a scheduled Skype session planned where they were going to simply talk. They hadn't done so in a while, only Alex apparently couldn't make it now. "You said you could make it when I texted you yesterday."

"I know," Alex felt bad for having to get a rain check for their plans but he was the one that encouraged her to gain more friends and that was exactly what the small girl was doing. "I could yesterday but something came up. We can talk tomorrow, I promise."

"Do you really promise, hermana?"

"The Spanish guilt trip, well played, J." Alex looked up to find Paul watching and waiting for her. She had excused herself to take this call and the wolf was patiently waiting, ready for their plans he had organized.

Jordan didn't budge however and his voice sounded desperate down the line. "You have to promise me, Lexi."

"Are you okay?" Alex asked concerned, she hadn't heard that tone of voice in her brother in a long time and it sent a chill down her spine. Alex hated not being able to see his face, one look at it and the girl would have instantly known what was up. "If you really need to talk about something then I can cancel what I'm doing with Paul, you come first."

There was pause on the other side of the call before Jordan spoke again, his voice sounding completely normal compared to how Alex heard it before. He seemed to have shrugged something off, even his snarky, confident nature came back. "Paul, huh? Make sure he wraps it before he taps it, I'm not ready to be a teenage uncle."

Alex scrunched up her nose at that, wishing her brother was there so that she could give him a massive whack on his arm. "Gross, this is a conversation I never want to have. I promise we will Skype tomorrow, now goodbye, Jordan."

"Bye, Alex," Jordan's voice was softer as he spoke. "I really do miss you."

This made Alex smile sadly, being apart from the person she hadn't spent four days apart from before the move wasn't as hard as she expected but that didn't mean it was ideal. She missed his wit, his confidence and the support she got from him daily. "Yeah, I miss you too. Love you."

"Love you too, tell Mama and Dad that I'm being good."

"You want me to lie to them?"

"I take it back, I don't miss you at all."

"Liar," Alex said before the two said a few other goodbyes.

Alex slid her phone into the back pocket of her light wash jeans before she was walking back to where Paul was waiting for her. The two were planning on going to Emily's house, although Alex still didn't really know who the girl was and why they were doing it. Paul had insisted and Alex wasn't going to say no to spending more time with the boy – especially as she hadn't seem as excited as this in a while.

Alex didn't think she would be able to refuse Paul anything if he kept that charming grin on his face, it almost made her melt.

"I didn't know you were cancelling plans with your brother for this," was the first thing that Paul said when Alex made her way over to him. He had been patiently waiting up the street slightly from Alex's house – the pair had slept there last night after Alex fell asleep against Paul's chest, causing him to do much the same.